Name:  Sam Yoakum
Undergraduate: Lehigh University, B.S.
Graduare: Barry University, M.S.
Medical School: Chicago College of Osteopathic Medicine – Midwestern U.
Graduation Year:  2009
Internship: Traditional Rotating Internship, Mt Sinai Medical Center – Chicago, IL
Residency: Loyola University Medical Center

Q: What is your hometown?
A: Orlando, FL

Q: What first attracted you to Physical Medicine & Rehabilitation?
A: I was dead set on being a pediatrician from the time I was six.  During medical school I was selected for an OMM teaching fellowship and one of my co-fellows was very excited about PMR.  Then I began to evaluate all of the things I loved about rotating with our OMM/Sports docs and the way they practiced medicine.  I realized that Physiatry encompassed all of the goals, practice possibilities, patient populations, and breadth/scope of practice that I wanted out of medicine and left behind many of the things I did not.  I love the patient care, the problem solving and, in particular, the mechanics and physics of the human body, in addition to leading a team of people with the shared goal of improving life (not just lab values) of our patients.

Q: Why did you choose your residency program?
A: Loyola provided an excellent combination of my biggest interests including: excellent outpatient experience; plenty of MSK including tremendous numbers of procedures (in-office injections, US guided, OR/Fluoro spinal, EMGs); good exposure to SCI, Stroke, amputation; extensive work with post-transplant rehab.  In addition, it is a University based program located in the near-west suburbs of Chicago.  I also liked the smaller size of the program, which translates into excellent 1:1 work with attending who are happy to teach because most of the year they work by themselves (translation: you’re not their scut-monkey)

Q: Why did you join AOCPMR?
A: The bigger question is why WOULDN’T I join AOCPMR.  Our college should be the natural place for all osteopathic, and any osteopathically minded allopathic physiatrist.  Even though physiatry is more generally geared toward osteopaths, there are very few opportunities for exposure to DO attendings and teachers (and their method of practice) in the vast majority of residencies.  In the AOCPMR I get that exposure, that teaching, mentoring and education as well as having a chance to work with the most dynamic osteopathic student group in the osteopathic world.

Q: What is one goal you have for AOCPMR in the coming year?
A: I would like to see the AOCPMR attain a level of brand recognition and resident involvement that makes my answer to question #4 the standard answer for all osteopathic PMR residents and attending.